Sunday, August 31, 2014

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Twelfth Sunday after
Pentecost (A—Proper 17)

August 31, 2014

Text: Matt. 16:21-28

Your
mind is a battle-ground in which God and the devil fight for possession. St. Paul makes reference to this battle in
our Epistle lesson from this past Sunday when he writes: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of
your mind” (Rom. 12:2; ESV). That is
to say, don’t surrender to Satan, who has the mind of this world transfixed by
his demonic deception, but surrender to God, who transforms your mind from its
spell-bound satanic hypnosis to the mind of Christ, that you may know the will
of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
Now, everyone of us is in need of such a transformation of our
mind. Because we’re born into the
satanic deception, born into the worldly state of mind. That is our natural state: minds captivated
by the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature. In Holy Baptism, however, our mind is
transformed, the shape of it is changed, from this worldly state of mind, to
the mind of Christ. But because we are
still in the flesh, and because we are still in the world, our mind must continually undergo this divine
transformation. It is not the case that
it happened once, and now it’s done. No,
as with our Baptism, this transformation is an event that happened at a
specific point in history, and that now continues to be our present and ongoing
reality. It is not simply that our minds
were transformed into the mind of Christ, but our minds are continually being transformed into the
mind of Christ. And note the passive
voice here. You are not transforming your mind.
God is transforming your
mind. The Holy Spirit is transforming your mind into the mind of Christ
as you hear and read and meditate upon Holy Scripture and preaching, and as you
eat and drink the Body and Blood of the Savior, with whose mind the Holy Spirit
desires to make you one.

St.
Peter needed a transformation of his mind.
Fast on the heels of his confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the living God, a truth revealed to him, not by flesh and blood, but by our
heavenly Father (Matt. 16:16-17), now he is trying to dissuade Jesus from
completing His saving mission. He does
not want Jesus to submit Himself to the cross and suffering. “Far
be it from you, Lord! This shall never
happen to you” (v. 22). But Peter is
not setting his mind on the things of God, but on the things of man (v.
23). He has been caught once again by
the Satanic deception. He’s been
duped! He’s been deluded! And Jesus calls it like it is: “Get behind me, Satan!” (v. 23). Peter, you’re speaking for Satan, not
God. You have the mind of Satan, not
God. Your mind has been conformed to
this world, Peter, and you need Jesus to transform your mind so that you see in
the cross of Christ the very will of God.
The cross, Peter, is what is good and acceptable and perfect. For Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross
redeems your mind and your whole body and soul from Satan, indeed, the whole
world from death and hell.

Now,
this is completely contrary to our fallen, fleshly minds, that God should
redeem us by sending His Son into the flesh to die a gruesome, accursed death
by Roman execution. Surely God could do
it another way, a more glorious way, a way befitting His majesty. I mean, He’s
God! He could snap His fingers, or
even just pronounce it so by a sheer act of His divine will. And as for His enemies, they should be
toast. Like James and John, we think Jesus
should call down fire from heaven to devour those wicked people. Of course, we fail to recognize that the
wicked people are us! And so the battle
between the fleshly mind and the mind of Christ. We do not have in mind the things of God, but
the things of men. St. Paul says that
the natural, unconverted person “does
not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he
is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1
Cor. 2:14). We just can’t wrap our
fallen minds around it. We don’t think Jesus should go to the
cross, either! It gets Jesus’ hands too
dirty, too bloody. And when you get
right down to it, it is offensive that it would take the death of God to save
us. Yes, we really are that bad. There really is no other way, for if God is
just, He must punish our sin. He cannot
ignore it, pretend it never happened, or leave it undealt with. That would make Him unjust. But God is love, and He loves His creation,
loves us, in spite of our rejection of Him.
He wants to save us. He wants us
to be His own. So what is He to do? He sends His Son. He sends Him to be our Substitute, to take
our place, to receive the just punishment for our sins. The cross is the intersection of God’s
justice and His love. There our sin is
punished. There we are redeemed. There in the pierced flesh of Jesus
Christ. We can’t understand it by
nature. God must reveal it to us. And to receive that revelation, to believe it
and hold on to it for dear life, our mind must be transformed by the Holy
Spirit.

So
that is what God does in Baptism and in His gifts in Word and Supper. We actually believe this incomprehensible
Gospel that Jesus died on the cross and rose again to forgive our sins and give
us eternal life. It’s a miracle, this
faith. Only God could accomplish such a
thing. But now the fight is really
on. Satan wants us back. So he uses every weapon in his arsenal. He shoots his fiery darts of temptation. He entices us with the allurements of
pleasure, power, and wealth. He
introduces doubt about God’s Word (“Did God really
say?...), helps us justify in our minds the changing of God’s Word or the
willful ignoring of it. He uses the
media and the entertainment industry, the trend setters and the powers that be
in the world, and even our friends and family members, to catechize us into his
deception. He plays on our
impressionable nature so that we imitate the world, and he uses the laziness of
our sinful flesh so that we are anything but fervent in spirit, so that we
leave ourselves vulnerable and open to his attacks. And then, when we’ve fallen to temptation,
when we’ve sinned, he changes tactics.
He accuses us, as is his nature.
He is THE accuser. He lies. He is the father of lies. He tells us that we are unredeemable, that
Jesus didn’t die for sinners like us, that what we’ve done is beyond the pale
of forgiveness. Beloved, he’s a
liar! Tell him to get behind you! Tell him where he can go!

But
know his tactics. Recognize them for
what they are. Recognize that there is
no neutral ground. You will be catechized, taught, molded,
shaped, either by the world, and ultimately the devil, or by the Holy
Spirit. You will either be conformed to
this world, or be transformed by the renewal of your mind. You will either have in mind the things of
God, or the things of men. You will
either have the mind of Christ, taught by Him, or a deluded mind that is
finally lost. As they say, “you are what
you eat.” In this case, you are the
voice you listen to. There is the voice
of Christ here in His Word. Or there are
all the other voices that are not Christ.
Christ has tuned you in to His voice in your Baptism, and He speaks to
you in preaching and Scripture. But the
other voices are clamoring for your attention, and Jesus will not force you to
stay here and listen to Him. So be on
your guard. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering
are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter
5:8-9).

Resist
him. That is to say, take up your cross
and follow Jesus. Talk about contrary to
our fallen nature. Crucify your flesh. Deny yourself. Die to yourself. Lose your life. Repent!
Repent of your selfishness.
Repent of your idolatry. Repent
of listening to the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature. It will hurt, this repentance. Because it will be the death of you. But that is how our Lord works. He deals in death and resurrection. For there to be resurrection, there must be
death. Your old Adam must die! But whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake
will find it (Matt. 16:25). That’s the
promise. If you stop listening to the
world, I guarantee the world will hate you.
It will hate you, because it hates Jesus. The world will mock you. It may persecute you. It may even kill you. That is the cross you are called to
bear. But you can bear it, because you
have been transformed by the renewal of your mind. You have the mind of Christ. So you know that as you bear the holy cross,
Christ bears you. He who was crucified
and is risen from the dead, bears you in His pierced hands, and He will raise
you up. He will rescue you. He will deliver you. He will heal you with His eternal healing. And you know, you who have the mind of
Christ, that this light momentary affliction is preparing you for an eternal
weight of glory beyond all comparison, as you look not to the things that are
seen but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are
unseen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:17-18). The
battle for your mind is won by Christ as He sustains you by His Spirit in your
Baptism. Beloved, listen to the voice of
your Good Shepherd. In Christ, you persevere. In Christ, the risen Savior with the mortal
wounds, your mind is given the things of God.
In Christ, you’ve found your life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Eleventh Sunday
after Pentecost (A—Proper 16)

August 24, 2014

Text: Matt. 16:13-20

The
holy Christian Church is an article of faith.
We confess in the Creed that we believe in one holy Christian and
apostolic Church. The articles of the
Creed are all a confession of what we cannot see, but only know by faith,
because our Lord says so by His Word.
And so the Church. Sure, we can
see the building and the people gathered together. We see the appropriate furnishings with which
we are surrounded, hear the organ and the distinctly “Church” music appropriate
to this place. It looks like the
Church. It feels like the Church. It smells like the Church. The Word is proclaimed and we sing it and
speak it together in liturgy and hymn.
The Sacrament is on the altar. We
gather around the font. But how do we
know the Church is here? We only know it
because Jesus says so. He says that
wherever two or three are gathered together in His Name, there is He among them
(Matt. 18:20), and so there is the Church.
He says that upon the rock of Peter’s confession, that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God, He will build His Church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:16-18). He says that where His Church is, the binding
and loosing of sin will be going on; the binding of the sins of the unrepentant
as long as they do not repent; the loosing, the forgiving, of the sins of those
who repent of their sins and want to do better, who look to Christ alone for
forgiveness of sins and strength for their Christian life. Where that is going on, there is the Church,
for the Lord has given the Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven (v. 19),
the Office of the Keys as we call it in the Catechism. And that is the whole purpose of the Church,
the only reason we exist, that here, in the Church, Christ may gather us and
open heaven to us by the distribution of His saving gifts.

So we
know where the Church is by the visible marks: The Word, the Sacraments,
Confession and Absolution, prayer, the mutual conversation and consolation of
the brethren, suffering and the cross.
These marks are clear evidence that the Church is here. But the Church itself we cannot see. It is an article of faith. It is invisible, because the Church is simply
this: holy believers in Christ, sheep who hear the voice of their Good
Shepherd, Jesus, and who know Him and follow Him (Cf. SA XII:2). But you can’t see faith. You can’t say for certain who believes and
who doesn’t. You can only go by what a
person says, what a person confesses. We
know the Church is here because of the marks.
We know the Church is here because the people here confess the
faith. We confess the Creed. We confess with St. Peter that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And
Jesus says that on this rock, this confession, He will build His Church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

But
it sure looks like the gates of hell are prevailing against it. We fight among ourselves over the silliest
things, like who is responsible for what, how this or that should be done, and
how to pay for it all… And we fight over thing that are not at all silly, like,
for example, the authority of the Bible, creation and evolution, the real
presence of Christ in the Sacrament… you name it, we can fight over it. The Church appears to be shrinking. We live in a culture that has come to mock
Christ and His Church, that rejects what the Bible has to say about the social
issues of the day, that denies that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God, and that He is the only way to heaven.
So less people come to Church.
And by the way, Christians aren’t having as many babies as they used to,
so I suppose we shouldn’t be all that surprised when older people outnumber
younger people in the Church. We suffer
mockery and pressure to conform to the culture here at home. And then we look at the sufferings of our
brothers and sisters in other places in the world, and we cringe to realize
that what is happening to them there could just as easily happen to us here:
kidnappings and imprisonment, beatings and torture, crucifixions and beheadings
and every other cruelty imaginable, all because of the Christian’s confession:
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

So
are You sure the gates of hell are not prevailing, Jesus? The holy Christian Church is an article of
faith, not sight. That is to say, things
are not as they appear. We do fight
amongst ourselves, much like the disciples fought over who was the
greatest. It shows our sin and
unbelief. Yet God graciously forgives
our pettiness and lack of faith, and calls us nonetheless to be His own in
Christ and to make our good confession with St. Peter. Sure, the Church appears to be
shrinking. There are less people in the
pews today than there were in the 1950s.
But you have to take the long view of history. Of course we always want more to come hear
about Jesus, but we don’t count the population of the Church by the number here
on Sunday morning. The Church grows with
every Baptism, and the Church doesn’t shrink when one of us dies. The dead in Christ live! They’re still members of the Church. Now they can never leave. They’re in heaven, members of the Church
triumphant. And as for the suffering and
persecution… that is actually a mark of the Church. That is one of the ways that we know the
Church exists, that Christ is present with His people and the Church is
persevering. For what did Jesus promise?
“Then they will deliver you up to
tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my
name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one
another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because
lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who
endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be
proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then
the end will come” (Matt. 24:9-14; ESV).
And so Jesus says to His disciples, to you, beloved: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when
others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:10-12). Where persecution is going on, there you know
Jesus is, strengthening and keeping His saints by His Spirit. And so there you know is the Church, because
the people there confess Christ even to their death. They endure to the end. And Jesus saves them. The gates of hell throw their worst at the
Church. But hell never prevails. Because Jesus has defeated hell. He has done so in His death and resurrection.

And so you confess that this crucified
and risen Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One,
the Son of the living God, the Savior.
And as with Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. No, all flesh and blood can reveal is what
the naked eye can see, and that doesn’t look good. But our Father in heaven reveals to you that
things are not as they appear. He
reveals that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, our Lord Jesus has
won the battle, snatched you out of hell, purchased you to be His own by His
precious blood, defeated your death in His death, given you eternal life by the
life-giving power of His resurrection.
And He has gathered you together here, as His Church, to loose you from
your sin, to forgive you, to cover you with His blood, to teach you, to feed
you, to make you His own, to strengthen you for perseverance. Here the Father reveals Jesus to you as the
Christ, His beloved Son, your Savior.
And He does this by His Spirit, working in the holy Word of God and the
Sacraments, your Baptism into Christ, and the Lord’s Body and Blood in the Supper. And you are blessed. You are blessed to confess the holy faith of
Christ. You are blessed to persevere
therein, come what may. You are blessed
to live as God’s own child.

Now,
someday you may be called upon, as St. Peter was, as St. Bartholomew was, whom
we commemorate today, and as our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are
now, to confess Jesus unto your death.
Peter was crucified upside down in Rome.
Bartholomew was skinned alive in Armenia. Our brothers and sisters are shot and buried
in the desert sand, crucified in the public square, or suffer the public
display of their severed heads. That
they confess Christ anyway, in the face of such atrocities, is a miracle, a
God-given gift. Beloved, the same Lord
Jesus Christ who feeds you here at this Altar, the same God and Father who
declared you His own child in your Baptism, the same Holy Spirit who dwells in
you by His life-giving Word, will give you the same gift of perseverance should
that day come. He will keep you in your
confession, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He will keep you in your Baptism. And your persecutors will think they win as
they snuff out your earthly life, for that is what flesh and blood has revealed
to them. But in that same moment, you
will see for yourself what your Father has revealed to you, that the gates of
hell can never prevail. For you will see
Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. You
will see the holy Church gathered around Him.
You will see that yours is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Tenth Sunday after
Pentecost (A—Proper 15)

August 17, 2014

Text: Matt. 15:21-28

Jesus
just ignores her. He does not answer her
a word (Matt. 15:23). Just keeps on
walking. And she keeps begging. “Have
mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David” (v. 22; ESV). Her daughter is severely oppressed by a
demon. If anyone can help, it is
Jesus. The woman must know something of
Him. Though she’s a Canaanite and not a
Jew, she must have heard of Him, and she must know the Promise given to God’s
people of the coming Messiah. She calls
Him “Son of David,” a messianic title.
In other words, she believes He’s the Savior. And the Savior is in the business of crushing
the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15), casting out demons and conquering Satan. So the woman cries to Him, pleads with Him,
will not let Him go. The disciples are
getting annoyed. “Lord, just help her
out so she’ll leave us alone.” I am not
sure they are moved by compassion so much as the desire to be rid of her,
escape her with a clean conscience. But
Jesus answers the disciples: “I was sent
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). Now, wait a second… Isn’t Jesus the Savior of
all people? Isn’t that the Promise we
trace through the whole Old Testament, that He’ll be the Savior of the nations,
that He’s for everybody? Yes, of course. That is the case now that His saving work has
been fulfilled. But in His earthly
ministry, He was sent to preach and do miracles for the Israelites. And, to be sure, it took guts for this
Canaanite woman, a Syrophoenician, to address Jesus in the first place. The Canaanites were the previous inhabitants
of the Promised Land, the pagans, the antagonists of Israel. There is some racial tension here, and Jesus
highlights it in His answer. He
essentially tells her, “no!” But she
won’t let go. If Jesus is the Messiah,
He is here for her, and she is holding Him to it. She throws herself in front of Him, stopping
Him in His tracks. Begging now on her
knees, she prays simply and directly: “Lord,
help me” (v. 25).

And
that is your prayer, is it not? In times
of desperation? In times of great
distress, illness, or grief? “Lord, help me.” Sometimes there are no other words. Now, sometimes the help is quick in
coming. Recovery. Resolution.
Encouragement. Comfort. But sometimes the help seems not to come at
all. You’ve been there with the
Canaanite woman, haven’t you? And it’s
not just racial tension between Jews and Gentiles that separate you from
Jesus. It is your sin. You have separated yourself from God by your
rejection of Him in your every sin. So
you know that you are not worthy for Jesus to hear you. And often, He seems to ignore you. It seems He does not answer you a word. You beg Him, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David,” and He just keeps on
walking. He seems to reject you. In the case of the Canaanite woman, He even
calls her a dog: “It is not right to
take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (v. 26). It is not right to take what belongs to the
Jews and throw it to the pagan Gentiles.
In your case, he calls you what you are, a sinner. It is not right to take what belongs to the
righteous and throw it to sinners.

Ah,
but just there He’s given you something to hold on to. For
Jesus came precisely to take what belongs to the righteous and give it to
sinners. Just as He came precisely
to take what belongs to the Jews, namely, salvation in the Messiah, and give it
to the whole world. In calling the woman
a dog, Jesus gives her a place in the house (Rev. Mark Love). And she knows it. She has caught Him in His Words, right where
He desires to be caught. “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their masters’ table” (v. 27). And so you.
In naming you a sinner, Jesus has given you your place in God’s house. “Yes, Lord, yet you came precisely to save
the sinner from His sin. You came
precisely to save me, to have mercy, to help me.” You see, Jesus
wants to be caught in His Word. Hold
Him to His Word! Hold on to Him in His
Word, and never let Him go. That is
faith. And so, what does He say to the
Canaanite? “O woman, great is your faith! Be
it done for you as you desire” (v. 28).
And her daughter was healed from that hour. The demon was cast out. Satan was conquered. The serpent felt the weight of Messiah on his
head.

Why
does Jesus make the woman, make you, jump through so many hoops? Why doesn’t He just deliver immediately when
you ask? We talked about that last week
and we ultimately had to content ourselves with God’s answer to Job: “I’m God
and you’re not, so just trust me that I know what I’m doing.” In other words, we don’t know. God hasn’t told us. But we do know that in these situations
Jesus, far from having abandoned you, is exercising your faith. He wants you to hold Him to His Word. He wants you to believe in spite of the
evidence, because you have heard what He says in His Word. He wants you to know your place in God’s
house, as a sinner graciously given His salvation and His righteousness,
without any merit or worthiness in yourself.
Jesus wants you to catch Him in His Word.

So in
those times when you are not immediately relieved of your suffering, when the
sickness lingers, when the relationship ends, when the loved one dies, when you
face your own death… It is then that Jesus wants you to catch Him in His
Word. He wants you to cling to His
Promise. Do you really think He is
ignoring you, He who has purchased you to be His own by shedding His precious
blood and dying for you on the cross? Do
you really think He refuses to answer to you a word, He who has given you the
Holy Scriptures as the revelation of Himself in His grace and mercy? Do you really think He has rejected you, He
who has place God’s own holy Name on you in Baptism as we saw with little John
this morning? No, no. He wants you to cling to precisely those
things. He wants you to throw yourself
in front of Him and stop Him in His tracks, and, recognizing your complete
helplessness and unworthiness, cling to Him for mercy: “Lord, help me.” “Lord, I am
a dog. I am a poor, miserable
sinner. I confess it. But You brought me into God’s House, made me
His own. You promised there is a place
for me. Just let me eat the crumbs. Just let me sit at your feet at Your Table. That’s why you came. To have mercy on me.” And then, like a dog sitting by the Master’s
Table, wait expectantly for what He has to give you.

He
will help you. But He will help you
perfectly. He will help you in the way
He knows to be best, though it be a cross.
Maybe He will immediately relieve you.
He often does. Then again, maybe
He won’t relieve you until you close your eyes in death and open them in
heaven. That is actually a better help
and healing than anything you can prescribe to Him. And you have to remember that the perfect help and healing only come in
the end, when Jesus raises you from the dead.
God may cure your cancer now, but you will still die. God may restore your loved one to health now,
but eventually you will have mourn a loss.
That is the reality of life in this sin-fallen world. The Lord does have mercy. The Lord does help. But we often mistake His mercy and help for
neglect. Because we fail to see what
Jesus Christ has finally done for the help of the Canaanite woman and her
daughter, for you and me, and for the whole world.

It is
His death on the cross, where He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, where
He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God for our sins and the sins of the
whole world (Is. 53:4-5). You know why
Jesus kept walking as the woman was begging?
He was walking on to complete His earthly ministry, walking on finally
to Golgotha to help her, to save her, to save her precious little daughter, to
cast out the demons forever. He was
walking on to save you. And so in His
death and in His resurrection, He provides for your help and healing in full
measure. He dies that you might
live. He lives that you might never
die. He is risen, and He will raise you,
too, to live with Him, with all the saints, with the Canaanite woman and her
daughter, in paradise restored, in the healthful creation of the new heavens
and the new earth. Jesus is not ignoring
you, and His answer to you isn’t really “no.”
It is a bigger “yes” than your request.
It is the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to
come. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Ninth Sunday after
Pentecost (A—Proper 14)

August 10, 2014

Text: Matt. 14:22-33

Why
does Jesus make His disciples set sail without Him into a storm that by any
human standard should cause all on board to be lost? Why does He make them endure the storm all
night long? While He’s there on the
shore praying, the storm arises. He
knows they are in peril. He knows they
are there in the middle of the sea, beaten by the waves, the wind against them,
fearing for their lives. But He doesn’t
go out to them until the fourth watch of the night, sometime between 3 and 6
am. When He does finally walk out to
them on the water, our text tells us “they
were terrified, and said, ‘It is a ghost!’ and they cried out in fear”
(Matt. 14:26; ESV). Well, maybe “Ghost”
is not the best translation. They said,
“It is a φάντασμά (a phantasm).” The Jews
believed that when they died, an angel would come and carry them to
heaven. Jesus teaches that, too, in the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22). The Jews also believed that when someone died
and went to hell, a demon, a phantasm, would come and carry them there. You know why the disciples were crying out in
fear? They believed they were about to
die and go to hell, because a phantasm had come to cart them off to Hades. Maybe they had Jesus all wrong, after
all. They certainly knew they were
sinners. They feared the storm. They feared God’s Judgment. And they had forgotten Jesus’ Word.

Back
on the shore, Jesus had told them to get into the boat and go before Him to the
other side (Matt. 14:22). We aren’t
given the exact quotation, but there is a promise implicit in Jesus’
command. You will get into the boat and
you will cross to the other side. It’s
not just a command, it’s a Gospel guarantee.
You will get to the other side.
Jesus does not promise the weather will be good and the water
peaceful. He knows full well there is a
storm brewing. But when Jesus sends His
disciples out in the boat without His visible presence, He wants them to
remember and trust in His Word. That’s
what all of us are to do. We are to get
in the boat of the Holy Christian Church and cross through this earthly life to
the other side of heaven and the resurrection.
Jesus is with us. We know that by
faith. But we forget, because He is not
visibly present with us. In reality,
He’s present with us in His Word, in His Gospel Promise. You will cross over. You will get to the other side. But there will be storms. There will be perils. You will be beaten by the waves. The wind will be against you. You will fear the storm. You will fear for your life, because death is
all around you in this life. You will
fear God’s Judgment because you know your sins.
And you, like the disciples, will forget Jesus’ Word.

That
is why He comes to you. He comes to you
on the water. Baptism! He comes to you in His real flesh and
blood. He comes to you and He speaks: “Take heart; it is I” (v. 27). Well, actually, the words He uses are even
stronger than that: “Take heart… I AM.” YHWH, right here, guys! “Do
not be afraid.” Because you don’t
have to. Jesus has it all under control. He is the Lord of wind and wave, the Creator
of heaven and earth. Things are not
always as they appear. The disciples
think Jesus has left them to face the storm alone. In fact, He has done nothing of the
sort. He knows right where they are,
precisely what is happening to them. He sent them there to face it! They
think it is a phantasm coming to drag them down to hell. In fact, it is Jesus coming to save them from
death and from hell. So also you. Things are not always as they appear. Jesus sends you into the storm for your good. You think that He has abandoned you. In fact, He has done nothing of the
sort. He knows right where you are,
precisely what you are going through.
And this is something that you cannot understand now, with your fallen
and finite mind, but He is sending you
through it, for your good. That is
what He has promised through the Apostle Paul, that He works all things
together for your good, for your salvation, for you have been called according
to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). You may not
know now why He does it. You may not
ever know in this life why He does it.
We’re always asking what lesson we’re supposed to learn from something
we’ve had to endure. You may not be
given the answer. Nor does God owe you
an answer. Often His answer is that
which He gave to Job in our Old Testament reading (Job 34:4-8): “Where were you when I laid the foundation
of the earth? Tell me, if you have
understanding. Who determined its
measurements—surely you know!” (vv. 4-5).
In other words, “I’m God and you’re not, so just trust me that I know
what I’m doing and stop trying to tell me how to be God!”

Just
trust Him. Believe His Word. Believe His Promise. You will get to the other side. Because He will get you there. That is one thing we learn from the
storm. We can’t do it on our own. Really, we can’t do it at all. We need Jesus, or we perish. When Jesus sent the disciples away on the
boat, the water was calm. They thought
they had it handled. After all, they
were professional fishermen. And this is
their lake. They are perfectly capable of getting to the
other side. That is how we act when life
is smooth. We have it handled. We know what we’re doing. Sure, we need a little help and direction
from Jesus, but ultimately, we’re good on our own. Then a storm arises that blows that myth out
of the water. It exposes us in our
weakness and utter helplessness. The
disciples thought that every other time they’d been on the lake and come to the
other side safely, it was by their own skill.
They didn’t see that God had been the One to keep them safe every time
they had pushed the boat off from shore.
So also you and I. We know what
we’re doing. We have it under control. We take it for granted that we’ll be
safe. Until we’re not. We don’t see that every time we have been
kept safe, every success we’ve ever enjoyed, every storm we’ve weathered, and every
storm we haven’t had to endure, is from God.
We need Him always, when the lake is smooth, and when the waves beat
against us. But when we recognize that
we need Jesus every moment, we can also take comfort in His Word of
Promise. He will get us to the other
side. He will keep us safe. Because He has already done everything to
guarantee our safety in His saving work on the cross and in His resurrection
from the dead. Stay in the boat and let
the storm rage. Stay in the Church and
let the devil and the world assault you.
They cannot finally harm you.
Jesus comes to you. “Take heart,” He says to you. “I AM.”

There
is also this matter of Peter getting out of the boat and walking to Jesus on
the water. There is a lesson for us
here, as well. It is not that you can
walk on water if you just believe enough.
You can try it at the Church picnic next week. It will never work. Because
you don’t have a word from Jesus. He
hasn’t told you to walk on
water. It was to Peter, and Peter alone,
that Jesus said, “Come” (v.
29). And that is why Peter can walk on
the water. It is not because of his
faith. It is because of the Word. The sinking happens for the same reason Jesus
sent the disciples out into the storm.
To show Peter that he isn’t walking on water because he is a great hero
of faith, because he has supernatural abilities, because he is talented, or
even because he believes enough. He is
walking on water for one reason only: Jesus’ Word. On your own, you drown. With Jesus, you’re safe. The minute Peter loses sight of the Word,
when he looks at the wind and the waves and realizes he is unable by nature to
do what he’s doing, that is when he begins to go under. But as Christians do, in the moment we’re
sinking, the moment we are in peril, we call upon the Lord for help: “Lord, save me” (v. 30). And He does.
He always does, because He is faithful.
Even though we are not, He is. “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
(v. 31). O Peter, O Christian, beloved
in the Lord, why do you doubt? Why do
you ever doubt? Jesus will never let you
perish. Never. He does send storms and He does let you
sink. But He always saves you, because
that is who He is. It is right there in
His Name: Jesus, “the LORD saves.”

Why doesn’t Jesus just appear and make
everything better for us right now? Why
does He make us get into the boat and suffer storms with wind and waves? Disease?
Injury? Loneliness? Brokenness? Death?
Whatever it is, why doesn’t Jesus just get rid of it? He does, but not the way you tell Him
to. He takes it into Himself and bears
it to the cross. That is why He
dies. He dies for your sins, that you be
forgiven. He dies for your hurt, that
you be healed. He dies for your death,
that you live forever with Him. And He
is risen, and lives, and reigns, so that nothing in all creation can separate
you from the love of God for you in Christ.
You have His Word on it. And that
is the Word that will carry you across, here in the boat, the holy Church. In spite of the storms, in spite of all that
this fallen world can throw at you, you will get to the other side. Because Jesus has spoken. He cannot lie. Do not be afraid. He has promised. He will save you. The wind and the waves will cease. And you will bow before His throne, safe on
the other side, and confess with the disciples: “Truly you are the Son of God” (v. 33). In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. H

Saturday, August 09, 2014

In Memoriam +Henry Louis Pfauth+

In Memoriam +Henry
Louis Pfauth+

August 9, 2014

Text: John 10:11-15

Hank
Pfauth walked in danger all the way, whether it be the earthly perils he faced
in his time in service to our country during World War II, or the physical
ailments that plagued him, particularly the last few years of his life. He also knew that he walked amidst spiritual
dangers, the flaming arrows of the evil one, temptation, sin, and death. But just as Hank bravely served our nation,
confident that the Lord would take care of him, so he bravely walked in this
life in the midst of spiritual dangers confident that his walk was with Jesus
Christ all the way, who would, as our Psalm declares, keep him from all evil,
keep his life, keep his going out and his coming in from this time forth and
forevermore (Ps. 121:7-8). Hank trusted
in Jesus, his Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep, for Hank,
for you and me, that we might forever live in the safety of the Lord.

That
Jesus is our Good Shepherd means that He leads us, as the beloved Psalm 23
sings, through the valley of the shadow of death and out the other side
again. So that’s what He’s done for
Hank. Our Good Shepherd Jesus led our
brother Hank through death and to Himself in heaven, to safety, to joy, to
eternal life. Jesus can lead us through
that valley because He’s been there Himself.
That is what He did on the cross for us.
He conquered death by dying.
Dying in our place. Dying for us,
for Hank, for our sin, to pay our debt to God and to purchase us to be His own. And what He purchases with His own blood He
does not leave behind in the valley. He
does not leave Hank in death. Hank
lives. He lives with Jesus. He sees now for himself what we can only know
by faith, as he stands before the throne of God and of the Lamb with the saints
adorned in their white robes. And the
Lamb in the center of the throne, Jesus Christ, who is risen and living… this
is His promise: He will raise Hank and all of us from the dead when He comes
again on the Last Day.

Until
that Day, or until we join Hank with Jesus in heaven, we, too, walk in danger
all the way. Jesus tells us about those
dangers in our Holy Gospel. He talks
about the hired hands who flee at the first sign of danger and the wolves who
snatch and scatter the sheep (John 10:12).
Those would be the people and things that we fear, love, and trust more
than God. Those are the people and
things we follow instead of listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus,
to follow Him. They also include our
three main enemies who are always out to devour us like a wolf: the devil, the
unbelieving world, and our own sinful flesh.
If you don’t believe you walk in danger all the way, just consider why
we’re here today. Death is the certain
reality of life in this fallen world. We
try to ignore it, shield our eyes and ears from it, but eventually a loved one
dies and we have to go to the funeral.
We have to confront it, this sad reality. And we grieve. It looks like the wolf won. It looks like the Good Shepherd wasn’t so
good after all, like He fell asleep on the job, as though He failed.

But
things are not as they appear. The Good
Shepherd wins the victory over death by, of all things, submitting to it. What does He say? “I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11; ESV). The Good Shepherd, Jesus, allows the wolf,
death, to swallow Him whole. And the
devil rejoices. The demons dance for
joy. The enemies of Christ sing their
triumph song. Until the wolf’s tummy
starts to rumble. And ache. And writhe.
And then Christ, the crucified Savior, punches a hole right through
death’s belly so that it can never hold another sheep captive in the tomb
again. That’s what happened on Good Friday and Easter, in the death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So
the same Jesus came to Hank on Wednesday morning, in the wee small hours, and
said to him, “Henry…” He says Henry because He calls us by our baptismal names. “Henry,” Jesus said. “The time for walking in danger is over. Walk with me where it is safe, through the
valley of the shadow to the bright eternal day of heaven.” And for the first time in a long time, Hank
walked without trouble, better, in fact, than He’d ever walked before, with
Jesus, with the holy angels, to the place Jesus has prepared for him in His
Father’s house. He now enjoys God’s good
healing that we sang about in the 6th verse of the hymn (LSB 716),
the good healing that allays all suffering, sin, and sorrow, because those
things are at an end in Christ. The
sorrow is ours today, not Hank’s. He is
in perfect joy and bliss in the presence of the Savior. He wouldn’t have it any other way, again, as
we sang in the verse: “For all the world I would not stay; My walk is heav’nward
all the way.” For all the world, Hank
would not have stayed. Not because he
doesn’t love you. But because he is
where he belongs. He is healed. He is with Jesus. And you’ll see him again. You’ll see him when you are there with him,
with Jesus, because of Jesus, who gives you eternal life.

Death
is always sad. Even for Christians. Because we miss our loved one. We miss Hank.
But there is also a note of joy at every Christian funeral. Because we know what Jesus has done about
death, Hank’s and ours, in His own death on the cross and in His
resurrection. We know what happens for
every believer who walks with Jesus through the valley of the shadow, that He
brings them into the light and life of heaven.
And we know what happens at the end, when Jesus returns, and tells us to
come out of the grave in our bodies. Beloved
in the Lord, this body will rise from the dead!
So the Christian funeral is a celebration and a confession of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come. We know the end of the story. We know the Good Shepherd wins. And death lays dying at the foot of His
cross.

The
joy of it all is that we, like Hank, can walk with Jesus all the way. He never walks away from us. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. Not in life.
Not in death. He walks with us
because we are baptized into Him, united to Him by water and the Word. He walks with us, speaking His Word of life
to us. And here at the altar, He feeds
us with Himself, His true body and blood, given and shed for us, for our
forgiveness, life, and salvation. He
spreads a Feast before us. And not just
us, but those who have gone before, Hank and all the saints, who continue to
join us “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.” The hymn we just sang preaches Hank’s
confidence in Christ. That confidence is
ours, as well. “I walk with Jesus all
the way, His guidance never fails me; Within His wounds I find a stay When
Satan’s pow’r assails me; And by His footsteps led, My path I safely
tread. No evil leads my soul astray; I
walk with Jesus all the way” (LSB 716:5).
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, August 03, 2014

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Eighth Sunday after
Pentecost (A—Proper 13)

August 3, 2014

Text: Is. 55:1-5; Matt. 14:13-21

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price” (Is. 55:1; ESV). Our
Lord bids us through the Prophet Isaiah to come to Him and be satisfied, to
purchase from Him water, food, wine, and milk, a feast which we, who have
nothing of ourselves, could never afford.
But our Lord bids us come and buy that which is priceless without money
and without price. Because He gives it
freely. And what is this water, food,
wine, and milk? It is His salvation,
eternal life, forgiveness of sins, mercy, providence, faith, and joy in the
Holy Spirit. It is all that Christ pours
out on us in His Word and Sacraments.
What else is the water but Baptism?
What else is the food but the Bread of Life that is our Lord’s Body
given into death for us and distributed to us?
What else is the wine but the Lord’s Blood in the Supper? What else is the milk but the precious Word
of God by which He nourishes us as infants in the faith? And it’s free to you and to me here in the
Lord’s Church.

The
Lord Jesus feeds His people. Certainly
He gives us each day our daily bread. At
the very least we ought to take that lesson to heart as we hear the Holy Gospel. The people are hungry. The Lord provides. Bread in the wilderness. Five loaves and two fish, miraculous
multiplication, twelve baskets left over.
He’ll provide for you, too. But
that’s not really the point. You have
yet to starve to death because your heavenly Father knows what you need and has
graciously given it. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). We’re always laboring for that which does not
satisfy, as the Prophet Isaiah points out to us (Is. 55:2). We’re always so narrowly focused on this life
and the concerns of this life, that we look for satisfaction in possessions and
money or pleasure, what this world has to offer. And though we know better as Christians, for
all practical purposes, we often act as if this life is all there is. Live it up now. Get what you can now. It’s all over when you die. You know that’s not true! In reality, it is only Jesus who
satisfies. He is the Bread of Life from
heaven, the true Manna who sustains us in this wilderness of sin and death,
with His Word and His Body and His Blood.
“Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt.
4:4). The Word imparts Jesus, gives Him
to us with all His saving benefits, to nourish us and bring us to eternal life,
heaven, and the resurrection of our bodies.

Don’t
miss the point of the feeding of the 5,000.
Yes, Jesus miraculously multiplied real bread and fish. Yes, hungry people ate real food and were
satisfied because their bellies were full.
St. John tells us in his account that bread is all the people cared
about (John 6:26). They wanted to make
Jesus King so that they would always have something to eat (v. 15). Jesus chides them for it. “Do
not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal
life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (v. 27). The people had missed the point of the
miracle. Jesus’ providence for the
bodily needs of the people is a sign of His providence for our spiritual
needs.

After
all, Jesus could have provided for the people’s hunger in another way. Clearly there were villages nearby to which
the people could go and buy bread for themselves, as they undoubtedly planned
to do anyway, and this was the suggestion of the disciples (Matt. 14:15). But what does Jesus say to His
disciples? “(Y)ou give them something to eat” (v. 16). Jesus isn’t giving this command to just
anybody. He’s giving it to the
Twelve. He’s giving it to the Apostles,
the first Christian pastors, and He’s charging to them to feed the people. Not with their own resources, mind you. They are to take what God has already given
them, five loaves of bread and two fish, and bring it to Jesus, for it is He,
through them, who will feed the people.
And what does He do? He takes the
food, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to His disciples. Now, that ought to sound familiar. Let me repeat that. He takes the bread and fish, gives thanks,
breaks it, and gives it to the disciples.
And the disciples are to give it to the people.

This
is how the Lord feeds His Church. He
feeds His Church by distributing His gifts in the Apostolic Ministry. He gives the Church pastors who are to take
what God has already given to satisfy our bodily needs, bread and wine in the
case of the Lord’s Supper, and bring them to Jesus, for it is He who feeds His
Church by the mouths and hands of His ministers. Jesus, by the mouth of His called and
ordained servant, speaks His Word over the bread and wine, the Words of
Institution: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on
the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He
broke it and gave it to His disciples…” (LSB 197). You know how it goes. He says of the bread, “this is My + body,” and it is.
And He says of the wine, “this is
My + blood,” and it is. And then the
pastor is to take what Jesus has given and feed the people. It is free.
It is for you. You who have no
money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price.
For that which is priceless is here given to you without price, for
Jesus has paid the price in full in His innocent suffering and death on the
cross for you.

No,
the meal in the wilderness was not the Lord’s Supper. That would not happen until the night of our
Lord’s betrayal in the Upper Room where He had gathered with His
disciples. They were to take what
happened there and give it to the Church.
This meal in the wilderness is a dry run of sorts, a practice, to teach
the Church how the Lord feeds us. He
gives pastors. And He gives the pastors
that which they are to feed the people.
And in this way Jesus Himself feeds you.
And there is another lesson here.
Everyone is satisfied. And there
are even leftovers. What seems like it
could never be enough: five loaves and two fish, is sufficient to fill everyone
and so also fill twelve baskets full of leftovers. There is a basket for each disciple to take
up, for when the Lord gives, He gives in abundance.

And
we look at the little wafer and the sip of wine in the Supper and say, How can
that possibly satisfy? How can that do
anything about my need, physically or spiritually? What can that possibly do about my sin? What can that possibly do about my
death? Beloved, do not look at the
appearance of things. When you do that,
you labor for that which does not satisfy.
Remember what the Lord did with the five loaves and two fish. Look what the Lord does with the bread and
wine of the Supper. He takes it. He blesses it. He gives to you, His true body and blood,
given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins. And you are satisfied. You are healed of your iniquity. You are healed of death. You are nourished for eternal life. For when the crucified and risen Body and
Blood of Jesus touches your lips and flows down your throat, the Bread of Life
and the Medicine of Immortality has taken possession of you. It flows in you and through you. And it overflows to your neighbor, because
remember, there are always leftovers, baskets to pick up, the Bread of Life
(Jesus) to distribute, the grace and mercy of God poured into you in Jesus so
that there is more than enough for you to give to your neighbor.

Jesus
feeds His Church. Jesus feeds you. He feeds you with Himself. And it is enough. You are satisfied. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.